When comparing DockbarX vs Cairo-Dock, the Slant community recommends DockbarX for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux app launchers?”DockbarX is ranked 8th while Cairo-Dock is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose DockbarX is:

DockbarX has an available plugin called "DockBarX Xfce4 Panel plugin" that allows DockbarX to blend in seamlessly with the XFCE4 panel, which is great for XFCE users due to the limited options of the default panel.

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Pros

Pro

Great plugin to help blend in to XFCE4 panel

DockbarX has an available plugin called "DockBarX Xfce4 Panel plugin" that allows DockbarX to blend in seamlessly with the XFCE4 panel, which is great for XFCE users due to the limited options of the default panel.

Pro

Easily customized

DockbarX has inbuilt settings that allow the user to easily customize the look of the dock, from changing the text color to the background color.

Pro

Cairo-Dock session

Users can choose to launch a stand alone Cairo-Dock session where the dock also serves as a taskbar where all apps are launchable such as in any other DE session. There is a composited version and one without.

Pro

Popular and usually found and installed from a distros repo

Due to the popularity and how long Cairo-Dock has been around it is more often than not found in a distros repos, which is very convenient to get the app installed.

Pro

Easily themed

Cairo-Dock has built in settings to install and use themes for the dock and icons. Definitely more robust in this are than most other docks available for Linux.

Cons

Con

Not actively updated

Con

Can be heavy on resources for weaker systems

Cairo-Dock is more on the heavy side when compared to other docks, which is something to keep in mind for those that are on low resource systems.

Con

Poor/No system theme or icon integration.

Docks use their own theme, own theme colors, icons, layout's and theme engines.

Con

Hard/Underwhelming to configure.

Cairo dock proposes a feature rich tool, tweakable to any degree. The configuration menus are at times inappropriate, shallow and uninteresting, complex to navigate, and prefab-centric. Rarely offering a satisfying preset, and always unsatisfying to tweak.